John Boehner Discusses Budget Deal, Says GOP Won't 'Roll Over' On Debt (VIDEO)

House Speaker John Boehner spoke about a budget deal struck between Democratic and Republican leaders late last Friday to avert a government shutdown during an appearance on Fox News on Monday.

In the exclusive interview, Boehner defended the spending agreement, which left some conservative lawmakers less than pleased, and offered a glimpse into budget negotiations that unfolded behind-the-scenes.

Asked to discuss a reportedly tense moment when Vice President Joe Biden lost his temper with the Speaker, Boehner described the heated outburst as "feigned moral outrage." He said, however, that the behavior was "out of character" for the vice president and afterwards they "just moved on" from the incident.

As for President Barack Obama, he said that while they "certainly haven't always agreed" when it comes to policy issues, they "understand each other better" and were "honest" and "straight up" with one another over the course of the budget negotiations.

In the interview, Boehner also addressed the prospect of raising the debt ceiling, an issue expected to take center stage in a looming and potentially more intense fiscal showdown.

"I think not raising the debt limit would have serious, very serious implications for the world-wide economy and jobs here in America," he said, adding, "But having said that, we're just not going to do the typical Washington thing, roll over, increase the debt limit without addressing the underlying problem."

Boehner said that the government "needs to listen" to the fiscally conservative message of the Tea Party when it comes to tackling the economic issue.

CBS News reported on Sunday:

President Obama, who is advocating to raise the level at which the U.S. government is legally permitted to borrow, so as not to cause a default on payments, has said he wants to see a "clean" bill on the matter - one without attachments.

The leading Republicans in the House says no way.

On Saturday night House Speaker John Boehner declared, "The president says, 'I want you to send me a clean bill.' Guess what, Mr. President. Not a chance you're going to get a clean bill."

While speaking on Fox News, however, Boehner did say, "We do not want to default on our debt and we should not default on our debt."

In an op-ed published by USA Today on Monday, Bohner said the budget deal last week "is far from perfect" and there's much more to be done to rehabilitate the economy.

"More of the same spending, taxing and borrowing will not make our economy stronger or our future brighter," he wrote. "This is why the spending cut agreement is important. While not nearly enough, these cuts represent a first step in taking our nation off the path to national bankruptcy, to giving employers the confidence they need to expand their businesses, and to sparing our children of lives indebted to foreign countries such as China."

WATCH: Part One

WATCH: Part Two

Comments

[Jeanette DeBella Bogue]

01:37 PM on 04/13/2011

He won't roll over, but he wants me to bend over?

[stape45]

08:03 AM on 04/12/2011

They've "rolled over on debt" every time they've assumed sufficient power to do so.

[Jamal Spencer]

06:37 AM on 04/12/2011

John Boehner is a man who is selling his soul to the highest bidder because he sees an opportunity to make the rich richer. He and the rest of the GOP are going to make the working man and woman lives as miserable as possible,basically telling everyone that you are on your own to fend for yourself because we don't like or want you. We,as Americans,are suffering because the people who are running Congress have no ideas to help us,but they have plenty of ideas to hurt us and that is their plan-to hurt us.

[grf67]

08:44 AM on 04/12/2011

Agree. So why are Americans stupid enough to think that these repub zealots will do anything for them or the country?

[Elyriaohio]

06:30 AM on 04/12/2011

The GOP sat on their hands for 2 years until they were elected on their JOBS mantra. Now they go back to sitting on their hands. When are they going to actually do some work?

[stape45]

08:05 AM on 04/12/2011

They are working, but not for the people - it's for the corporations, and so it shall remain.

[Debbie Mock]

03:56 AM on 04/12/2011

The GOP sure likes making debt! They developed the biggest expansion to our government in this century, called Homeland Security, had two wars off budget, the bank bail out, all the Katrina tailors, two stimulus packages, added an unbudgeted 800 billion dollar Medicare drug coverage on in the middle of the night, increased military spending 81% over the past 10 years, while cutting taxes on the upper 3%, which cost us 1.5 trillion in tax revenue.

[guveqzero]

02:50 AM on 04/12/2011

What do you expect from a drunk? I expect nothing.

[BARRY08]

02:08 AM on 04/12/2011

I think now that we know whose Bohener*s ideas and decisions come from, we should call for Mr Jackson to become the Speaker of the House - Bonner alone could not have done it Mr Jackson is the man behind the man and should be given all the credit (good or bad) let us ask him to come forward - B is a FAKE

[fwiw methinks]

12:40 AM on 04/12/2011

Big problem is those tax breaks to the rich and corporations. And giving monies to multi-billion dollar oil corporations.

James 5:1-4 (KJV)

1 – Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.
2 – Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten.
3 – Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.
4 – Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth.

[viking1969]

11:49 PM on 04/11/2011

The Republicans have every intention of raising the debt ceiling. They're simply posturing. Obama and the Dems simply need to call their bluff. Ryan's own budget proposal demands that it be raised for decades. The "true believers" in the GOP (Tea Party radicals) haven't a clue how this all works.

Besides, the Republican handlers over at the US Chamber of Commerce, Wall Street and corporate boards will demand it. They don't want a depression. Can't maximize profits if half the world is unemployed. The GOP is full of hot air.

[donna morrell]

11:43 PM on 04/11/2011

I was watching Fox News Friday night when they reported on the budget deal. Thinking that it would be interesting and informative to see how MSNBC was covering the same news, I turned to MSNBC. Imagine my surprise when MSNBC was showing a lengthy clip of Fox News coverage of the deal. Is MSNBC so devoid of content that they have to stoop to discussing how Fox covers news rather than doing their own original reporting? No wonder MSNBC struggles to compete with FOX for ratings and thus advertising revenue.

[BARRY08]

02:13 AM on 04/12/2011

you are so full of hot air - of course they have to report the distortions at Fox News for the audience that cannot bear to watch them - they too have to be educated - please , if that is all u have to say, do not !

[sepuck]

11:37 PM on 04/11/2011

He may not roll over for on the budget debate, but he sure would roll over for the koch brothers.

[Bronxdude]

11:31 PM on 04/11/2011

America does not have a spending problem; we have a problem cutting taxes for millionaires, billionaires, and those making $250,000 or more. Contrary to Rush (titular GOP Leader), democrats oppose wealth redistribution; instead, democrats want the wealthy to pay their fair share of taxes, which means rescinding policies that dumped a disproportionate share of America’s tax burden on the middleclass. In America, wealth (the value of what’s owned minus what’s owed) is highly concentrated at the top. As of 2010, the top 2% owned 51% of all privately held wealth, with the bottom 98% controlling 49%. Between 1983 and 2008, due to tax cuts for the wealthy, of all wealth created, a whopping 94% went to the top 20%, which means that the bottom 80% received only 6%; thus, wealth is concentrated at the top, but the tax burden is concentrated at the bottom. If the wealthy simply paid their fair share, the deficit could be erased by 2015, and the tax burden for middleclass households could be reduced to a fair percentage. Because of Bush tax cuts, middleclass taxes as a percent of income and investment gain represents 28%; for millionaires and billionaires, respectively, it’s 4% and 0.2%. Of the $1.4 trillion in Bush tax cuts, 54% of the money went to the top 2%, while a disproportionate percentage of the tax burden was shifted to the bottom 98%. To embrace the big lie that repealing tax cuts for the wealthy will hurt small businesses (by inhibiting their ability to create jobs) requires acceptance of the asinine Republican argument that multinational corporations Bechtel and Koch Industries are small businesses.

[Fred M White]

01:21 AM on 04/12/2011

Once again dude, spot on. Would fan you again if I could. Keep telling it like it is brother.

[maab76]

12:00 PM on 04/12/2011

I'm with you, and had a couple of days of rants about this very topic. Have you looked into Jan Schakowsky and friends (16, I think) who cosponsored new tax legislation? I suggested that since SCOTUS declared corporations to be "people" that those corps also pay on the same scale, expanded in the pattern to accommodate the increased numbers.

[Coyote50]

11:29 PM on 04/11/2011

The GOP/TPers want to kill JOBS. These budget cuts and refusal to raise the debt ceiling will kill our economy and the world-wide economy. It's beyond stupid. The government is not your household.

Rep Jan Schakowsky put forward a bill to increase taxes on the rich starting with 45% on everything anyone makes over $1M to $10M, it then goes up to 49% for everything made over $1B.

We should all be writing our Reps and asking them to sign onto this bill. Then we should write our Senators and asking them to introduce THE SAME bill in the Senate. Get a vote in the Senate, video every single word every single Republican­'t says about it, demand a hearing and vote in the House and video every single word. Then play those back like crazy in 2012. The public is with us on this.

http://www­.huffingto­npost.com/­2011/03/16­/jan-schak­owsky-inco­me-tax_n_8­36624.html -- spread the word!”

[SeanMartin]

11:28 PM on 04/11/2011

You wont roll over for a debt ceiling (even though you were happy to do so during the Bush years, eh, Johnnie?). You wont roll over for higher taxes for the super-wealthy or closing corporate loopholes. But you'll happily roll over when it comes to giving the Pentagon a blank cheque. What we spend for about an hour in the Middle East could have given California light rail from LA to Sacramento... which, in case you didnt notice, got cut from the budget. Tell me, John: when're you guys gonna start actually working on all that JOB CREATION you promised?

[BARRY08]

02:20 AM on 04/12/2011

this is not John speaking - it is Mr Jackson ! let us call it by its proper name !

[huffmatoo]

11:17 PM on 04/11/2011

Do any of these interviewers ever dare to ask the question: How many times did Boehner vote for debt ceiling increases during Bush years??? It was the republicans who rolled this country into debt under Bush and that debt didn't disappear when Bush slithered away leaving a huge unemployment and financial disaster behind.